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Attorney General Tom Horne’s efforts to replace the police force in Colorado City with deputies from the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office was killed in the state House last week, as the legislative session ended.
Colorado City, for those joining late, is the city on the Utah/Arizona border that child rapist Warren Jeffs used to call home, and remains home to members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Horne pushed the bill to legislators, contending that the cops there — often referred to as the “Marshals” — were way too sympathetic to polygamists and friends of Jeffs.
“Numerous cases have been documented where the ‘Marshals’ refuse to investigate serious crimes against the property and persons of ‘apostates’ or other non followers of Warren Jeffs, when the perpetrators were followers of Mr. Jeffs,” the AG’s Office said in February.
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The House had previously killed the bill to replace the cops in Colorado City, but it was tacked on to another bill as an amendment in a last-ditch effort to get it passed.
House members didn’t accept that either, saying the language wasn’t germane to the actual bill.
Horne, who had referred to the proposal to replace the Colorado City cops as his “highest priority in terms of the safety and well being of Arizona citizens,” said after the bill failed that he’s going to push it again next session.
Our question this morning: Should the Legislature pass a bill to replace the cops in Colorado City?
Cast your vote below:
